CNN:'Entropia Universe' opens virtual pawnshops

[Dunn]

As long as the items gets stored in the bank, instead of deed for the items beeing made, they are pawnshops, not banks, Have you ever heard of a bank storing your house in a vault until your done with the downpayent ????

[hoos]

Originally Posted by Angel of Death

This is a very bad thing. The banks, which have potential to be more than a pawn shop, are now being labeled as pawn shops by the press.

Pawnshops are negative press in my eyes.

I completely disagree that "this is a very bad thing." Any major news story on CNN.com is a HUGE coup for MA/EU, unless it is talking about the complete collapse of the economy or a MA bankruptcy. I joined in the fall of 2005 after reading the CND $100k story on CNN, and am absolutely certain that EU will gain many new, quality participants as the result of this story. Though "pawn shop" may have a negative connotation IRL, in VL it is still somewhat of an intriguing concept, and the story did not have a negative tone.

Sure, MA could have done more to distance their banking initiative from the "pawnshop" moniker, but so far, I still rate it a great success as far as its potential to bring growth to EU.

[Jake Rogue]

This is old news, and this story from the AP news wires, by AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, is already being discussed in a thread here:

"Online game sells pawnshop licenses"

Search is your friend...

[craw]

Originally Posted by Jake Rogue

Search is your friend...

I had searched on "cnn pawnshop" and "cnn pawn shop" and got no results, hence the post.

[Angel of Death]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, as the banks have been looked at as pawnshops since they were announced, there is still the potential to create something else out of it. If I had the cash, I would have invested in one as the potential to make a lot of profit off a virtual bank is extremely enticing.

Let me clarify my thoughts a little bit without divulging too much info.

Regardless of what the primary function of a bank is currently, it's a business, right? There are currently 5 banks, all of which will be competing for clients, we, the citizens of Calypso. In order for the citizens to choose which bank is best for them to use, there has to be some incentives put into place.

If I owned one, I would not be looking at the bank as a pure 100% profit making machine to bring in buko bucks to my bank account. I would place an offer to Entropians to entice them to use my bank. Loan out money, with collateral and an interest rate would obviously be first and foremost. The pawnshop process. But the purpose of a citizen using a bank is as follows:

If I take out a certificate of deposit at a bank in real life, I am effectively issuing a loan to the bank for a percentage back when the loan matures. I goto my local bank and say "I would like to purchase a CD for 100PED and I see that your current interest rate is 2.5%. After 3 weeks (or whatever the bank specifies) the loan will mature and I will get back 102.50PED."

I have effectively let the bank use my 100 ped to invest into something, and I made a profit.

How can this translate? The banks have to have 1M PED liquid. Currently my modest skills TT value is somewhere in the range of 5000 PED. That's only 200 entropia accounts value for skills alone. That 1M PED isn't going to last that long if it takes off, so the bank is going to need more money to invest in the loan system.



At this point I'm just finishing off a 16 hour work day so my words may be garbled. If you're curious about something and would like me to clarify my beliefs, feel free to PM me. I still feel that, even though the CNN/AP article was not written with a negative tone, I still feel that it could be percieved as negative press based on the conception of pawnshop. Just remember that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Thanks for your time, if you've read everything I've had to say.